Monday, April 26, 2010

Expedition 23 Works on New Crew Quarters, Maintenance


Aboard the orbiting International Space Station, the Expedition 23 crew spent Monday outfitting its newest crew quarters facility and performing maintenance.

Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko worked to outfit the newest crew quarters, which was delivered to the station aboard space shuttle Discovery during the STS-131 mission. The modular crew quarters facilities provide each of the station’s occupants with their own “personal space” that resembles a booth. In their quarters they can stow their personal belongings, rest and spend their recreational time. Each unit provides the crew member with visual, light and acoustic isolation, as well as laptop connectivity.

Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson spent time collecting and analyzing water samples from the orbital outpost’s water processing system.

Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi conducted maintenance on the cooling loops for the U.S. spacesuits in the Quest airlock in preparation for spacewalks to be performed by the STS-132 crew, set to arrive at the station aboard space shuttle Atlantis next month.

Over the weekend, the crew completed the annual maintenance work on the Treadmill Vibration Isolation System and completed the relocation of the COLBERT treadmill into the Tranquility node.

The ISS Progress 35 undocked from the Pirs Docking Compartment Thursday after being loaded with trash and other unneeded gear and equipment. The Progress will be used for scientific experiments until it is deorbited and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere this week.

The ISS Progress 37 cargo ship was transported to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for final preparations for launch on Wednesday. Progress 37 will dock to the station Saturday, bringing 1,918 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen and air, 220 pounds of water and 3,031 pounds of spare parts and experiment hardware.

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